NEW YORK NEW JERSEY STADIUM — Spain stands alone on top of the world.
La Roja won their second World Cup title on Sunday — Spain’s first since 2010 — by defeating Lionel Messi and 10-man Argentina on Ferran Torres’s goal in the second half of extra time following a scoreless first 90 minutes — and denying the Albliceleste’s bid to become the first country to repeat as World Cup champions since Pele led Brazil to back-to-back titles in 1958 and 1962.
Spain dominated the match from start to finish. They out-shot the Argentines, who lost Enzo Fernández to a second yellow card before the additional 30 minutes began, by an astounding 20-0 and forced keeper Emiliano Martínez to make 11 saves, a new World Cup final record. Yet it took Torres’s goal in the 106th minute to defeat the defending champs — and probably end Messi’s career on the biggest stage in sports.
Here are four takeaways from Sunday’s dramatic World Cup final.
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As they did against England in last week’s semifinal win in Atlanta, Argentina’s fans badly outnumbered Spain’s among the 80,663 who attended Sunday’s finale. Most neutral supporters in attendance and watching across the globe probably wanted to see Messi win another World Cup, too, further cementing his legacy as the greatest soccer player of all time.
Although they ended up disappointed, La Roja thoroughly deserved to win this World Cup.
The pre-tournament favorites were never flashy over their five-plus week stay in North America. They didn’t have the panache of France, or the pure star power of other nations — even though they fielded teenage sensation Lamine Yamal. Spain was nevertheless the best team at this World Cup. They showed that by rendering France toothless and eliminating Les Bleus with relative ease to reach Sunday’s decider, where they also badly outplayed Argentina. The score was close, but the stats weren’t: Even before Fernández was sent off in stoppage time with a second yellow card, Yamal & Co. had controlled nearly two-thirds of the possession.
(Photo by JUAN MABROMATA / AFP via Getty Images)
So much of the talk in the lead-up to Sunday’s grand finale a few miles west of New York City was the opportunity for Argentina to do something unprecedented by becoming the first national team ever to win four consecutive major titles, snapping a tie with the legendary Spanish side of the early 2010s.
In ending that dream for the 2022 World Cup champs, this generation of Spanish players asserted themselves as worthy successors to both of those dynasties.
Under coach Luis de la Fuente, Spain has won three trophies in the last three years; Sunday’s triumph capped the European Championship La Roja claimed in 2024 and the UEFA Nations League crown it claimed a year earlier. (They narrowly lost the Nations League final last summer, to Portugal.)
With another Nations League to play for next year, Euro 2028, set for the following summer and a home World Cup two years after that, Spain, with the fifth-youngest roster among the 48 squads at this World Cup, will have a chance over the next few years to go down as the most decorated national team of them all.
(Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP via Getty Images)
